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Slater Insulator in Iridate Perovskites with Strong Spin-Orbit Coupling
- Source :
- Phys. Rev. Lett. 117, 176603 (2016)
- Publication Year :
- 2017
-
Abstract
- The perovskite SrIrO3 is an exotic narrow-band metal owing to a confluence of the strengths of the spin-orbit coupling (SOC) and the electron-electron correlations. It has been proposed that topological and magnetic insulating phases can be achieved by tuning the SOC, Hubbard interactions, and/or lattice symmetry. Here, we report that the substitution of nonmagnetic, isovalent Sn4+ for Ir4+ in the SrIr1-xSnxO3 perovskites synthesized under high pressure leads to a metal-insulator transition to an antiferromagnetic (AF) phase at TN > 225 K. The continuous change of the cell volume as detected by x-ray diffraction and the lamda-shape transition of the specific heat on cooling through TN demonstrate that the metal-insulator transition is of second-order. Neutron powder diffraction results indicate that the Sn substitution enlarges an octahedral-site distortion that reduces the SOC relative to the spin-spin exchange interaction and results in the type-G AF spin ordering below TN. Measurement of high-temperature magnetic susceptibility shows the evolution of magnetic coupling in the paramagnetic phase typical of weak itinerant-electron magnetism in the Sn-substituted samples. A reduced structural symmetry in the magnetically ordered phase leads to an electron gap opening at the Brillouin zone boundary below TN in the same way as proposed by Slater.<br />Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures
- Subjects :
- Condensed Matter - Strongly Correlated Electrons
Subjects
Details
- Database :
- arXiv
- Journal :
- Phys. Rev. Lett. 117, 176603 (2016)
- Publication Type :
- Report
- Accession number :
- edsarx.1710.00304
- Document Type :
- Working Paper
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.117.176603